Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Meals During Pregnancy

I've been pretty rubbish at blogging about what I've been eating during my pregnancy so far. There are a couple of reasons for this, the main one being that I spent about the first 16 weeks in and out of hospital and not eating much at all. Hyperemesis, is not pleasurable. I however turned out to be one of the lucky ones and recovered from this - many people suffer throughout their pregnancy. For more information have a look here.

It took me a little while after that to get my appetite back and actually WANT to eat food. With all that baby in there sometimes smaller 'snack meals' more often are better than a large one. Here are some ideas on what I've been having;

Baked potatoes - a really simple one but good for you. I eat mine with baked beans and a bit of omega oil drizzled on top

Hummus and falafal - in pittas or ciabatta with lots of salad and tomatoes

Chickpea and avocado salads

Lentil based soups with whole meal bread

'Nooch' sauce based meals such as mac n cheese (fortified nutritional yeast is rich in B12)

Popcorn with sprinkled nutritional yeast topping

That's obviously not a complete list, but I hope it gives you some idea as to the things I've been trying to incorporate into my diet. Nobody is perfect - ideally I'd like to get a bit more fruit and vegetables in there somewhere. I've also been taking a vegan prenatal vitamin made by Deva at the recommendation of my midwife.

This is a table (from Viva!) showing what and how much a pregnant vegan should be aiming to eat each day;

For more information on nutrient requirements you can download a PDF of Viva!'s 'Mother and Baby Guide' here.

If anybody else has great meal or snack ideas I'd love to hear them :)

2 comments:

I know this is an old post but it's really helpful, thanks! I've just returned to veganism and am pregnant with our second child so need all the help I can get! Man, pregnancy is tiring second time round with a toddler. Thanks again x